stoa

Tackling antimicrobial resistance from science to policy

Tackling antimicrobial resistance: from science to policy

Antimicrobial resistance, whereby antibiotics are no longer effective against bacteria or other microorganisms, is a growing problem. Every year, 33,000 people in the EU die from infectious diseases that cannot be treated with available medication. The European Parliament's Panel for the Future of Science and Technology (STOA) has been discussing ways to fight a phenomenon ...

Humanities in the digital age: Securing innovation and empowering democracy

Humanities in the digital age: Securing innovation and empowering democracy

What do video games and social sciences have in common? What about art and computational analysis? At first glance, not much. But crossing digital technologies with the study of humanities has become a field of research. At its latest event, the European Parliament’s Panel for the Future of Science and Technology (STOA) explored the opportunities ...

Open strategic autonomy - STOA event

Open strategic autonomy – STOA event

At its event on 7 March 2023 gathering MEPs and researchers, the Panel for the Future of Science and Technology (STOA) focused on the concept of ‘Open strategic autonomy’. This strategy tries to address the European Union’s dilemma of how to reduce its dependency on external actors while remaining open to trade and investments. https://youtu.be/0Y7SRDhRpT0

Four detergents with comparable traffic light climate labels

The challenges of a European climate label

Trying to shop sustainably? Climate labels aim to assist consumers to choose the products that cause the lowest amount of global warming. But are they really effective? And would a general, standardised European climate label help? We asked Prof. Bo Weidema, an expert at the Danish Centre for Environmental Assessment. On 20 March 2023, he ...

The future of RNA-based technology

The future of RNA-based technology

Exploring RNA-based technology, its achievements, its future promises, and what it means for European healthcare: This was the aim of this year's STOA Annual Lecture, the 20th edition of a yearly event organised by the European Parliament's Panel for the Future of Science and Technology (STOA). As its keynote lecturer, STOA welcomed Professor Özlem Türeci, ...

Coronavirus RNA strand. Medical illustration. 3D rendering

RNA technology already helped thousands of patients

"RNA-based technology can help babies with spinal muscular atrophy reach milestones such as sitting, standing and walking", says rare disease expert Prof. Annemieke Aartsma-Rus (Leiden University Medical Center, the Netherlands). This Wednesday 25 January the European Parliament's Panel for the Future of Science and Technology will hold its Annual Lecture on the future of RNA-based ...

A forum to protect academic freedom in the EU

A forum to protect academic freedom in the EU

On 28 November 2022 the European Parliament President Roberta Metsola has launched the ‘EP Forum for Academic Freedom’ during a high-level conference hosted by the Panel for the future of Science and Technology (STOA). Many academics are working in increasingly hostile environments. This STOA initiative will monitor threats to the independence of researchers, scientists and ...

Concept of online foreign language translation and learning - 3d

Professor Andy Way: ‘Smaller languages could soon become extinct online, if the EU doesn’t address the matter’

The EU’s rich linguistic landscape consists of 24 official languages and over 60 regional and minority languages. But when it comes to technology support and digital services, a big imbalance persists between the five most spoken EU languages and the remaining ones. To battle this, a large consortium of 52 partners covering all European countries ...